Week In Review: July 31

on
Friday, July 31, 2015

General Assembly Pay

·House Republicans vote for bill to
deny pay increase for selves in FY16. The measure, HB 576, amends State law to block
implementation of the automatic pay increases slated to be paid in FY16 to Illinois
elected officials. This action is necessary to prevent an annual automatic pay
increase from being paid to members of the General Assembly, statewide elected
officials, certain Cabinet-level executive branch agency directors and
appointees, and county state’s attorneys. Automatic pay increases of this type
have been mandated by the Compensation Review Act since 1984.

The increase for FY16, which is designed to help beneficiaries
keep up with the level of inflation, is 2.0%. If HB 576 passes through the
Senate and is signed by the Governor, this 2.0% pay hike will be blocked for the year. HB 576 also blocks
scheduled increases in the legislator per diem and legislative mileage
reimbursements that are meant to compensate legislators for their living
expenses when living in, or traveling to and from, Springfield and other places
of legislative duty.

The 101-1-0 House vote on HB 576 was held on Tuesday, July 28.
Gov. Rauner has signaled his support for blocking these pay hikes, but action
on this bill in the state Senate is not certain. The Senate will reconvene on Tuesday, August
4.

FY16 Budget Crisis

·Budget crisis continues. Two months after the
constitutionally-mandated deadline for the Illinois General Assembly to
complete its business, and one month after the beginning of the new fiscal
year, Illinois still does not have a budget for FY16. Appropriations for the
fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2015 and will end on June 30, 2016, are
supposed to control how much money the State has to spend during this period;
but as of Friday, July 31, there are no appropriations and no legal controls in
place for expenditure areas other than elementary and secondary education this
fiscal year.

The current budget crisis is the product of a series of
questionable decisions by the Democratic majorities of both houses of the
General Assembly. The Constitution strongly encourages the state legislature to
enact an annual balanced budget, and then adjourn on or before May 31st
of each year. In 2015, the members of the majority party failed to perform this
duty. Their failure was no surprise, as the Illinois House and the Illinois
Senate have had the same Democrat leadership teams in place for many years, and
in past years they have repeatedly passed unbalanced budgets. For many years
the budget was nominally “balanced” by underpaying monies into State-managed
pension funds, thereby compounding the growing crisis. Current law requires
full pension funding; however, and this will require the State to appropriate
at least $36 billion in taxpayer money to continue existing operations in FY16.
At the same time, current State tax laws will lead to the generation of only
about $32 billion in revenue for State coffers in the same fiscal year. There
is a gap of at least $4 billion in the current 12-month period.

In May 2015, the Democrats could have either come up with an FY16
budget that reduced State spending by $4 billion to close the gap, or proposed
significant FY16 tax increases to close the gap in the other direction. They
did neither. They brazenly voted for a $36 billion unbalanced “budget,” and
then declared they had done their work and could leave Springfield. After their
adjournment caused an uproar, Democratic Speaker Madigan reconvened the
Illinois House – the operations of which he controls – for one day each week in
June and July of 2015, but no new comprehensive budget appeared. Instead, the
House majority repeatedly affirmed and offered changes to their existing
unbalanced budget, even though most of it (school aid was an exception) had
already been vetoed by Gov. Rauner.

State Employee Labor Relations/Pay
Update

·Litigation seeks to clarify how long
State employees will be paid without a budget. Since July 1, Illinois has been operating without a State
budget. Operations have continued, and State employees and workers have
continued to be paid, for at least four weeks since this fiscal deadline.
Litigation has, so far, produced a mashup of various legal decisions. These
decisions point in different directions with regard to the status and standing
of different pieces of the government and their employees. If there is any
common theme to the current legal situation, it is the continuation of many
State agencies’ cash flows at the level they operated on in FY15. This, in
turn, has allowed these agencies to continue to pay their employees as of this
week.

In one key case originating in Downstate’s St. Clair County, the
current judgment being implemented is that of the Fifth Illinois Appellate
Court. This decision, by the Appellate Court with jurisdiction over southern
Illinois and handed down on Friday, July 24, affirmed the Circuit Court’s injunction and
ordered that all State employees should be paid their full payroll checks. However, the Appellate Court also recognized
the non-lawful nature of this cash flow – which is being paid out without a
budget – and simultaneously remanded the case to the Circuit Court with an
order that the lower court should hold a hearing and determine an expiration
date for the injunction. The Appellate Court’s remand order was seen by critics
as recognition that the State is facing a substantial – and growing – moral
hazard in operating without a budget.
Creating an expiration date for employee pay could be one way to
increase pressure on key Illinois officials to develop a legal outcome to the
current FY16 budget impasse.

·Governor vetoes bill to impose single
negotiation platform on public labor negotiations.
SB 1229 would amend the Illinois Public Labor
Relations Act to replace collective bargaining with binding interest
arbitration with respect to collective bargaining agreements that have
expired. The provisions of SB 1229 would
be effective for four years (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2019). The
collective-bargaining process is the traditional pathway used by labor and
management to resolve most issues of workplace life, pay, and benefits. Like
all other gubernatorial vetoes, the veto of SB 1229 is subject to the oversight
of the General Assembly. Gov. Rauner signed the veto message on Wednesday, July
29.

The Illinois Public Labor Relations Act governs the relations
between most non-educational public-sector employers and their employees.
Affected entities include the State of Illinois, its 102 counties, and
thousands of municipalities and other units of local government. The labor
relations of these units are one of the factors that determine the income,
sales, and property taxes that most Illinois private-sector residents pay.

·Contentious State labor negotiations
extended until at least September 30. The State of Illinois continues to pursue negotiations with its
principal union, AFSCME, with the goal of inking a new State labor contract.
Several facets of these negotiations are relatively contentious, as labor and
management grapple with overall issues of U.S. public policy and the relative
spaces that should be given, in justice, to the public sector and private
sector here in Illinois. As discussions continue, both sides have agreed to
extend the negotiations until at least September 30. The agreement includes a
mutual no-strike-no-lockout pledge that will operate throughout this
period.

Economic growth – Business licensure
website

·Governor signs one-stop license
website bill co-sponsored by Keith Wheeler. The measure, SB 659, directs the Illinois Department of
Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to create a one-stop “licensure
application website” for businesspersons wishing to
create new businesses or relocate businesses to Illinois. The General Assembly
has directed that information be included on the single website to “walk
applicants through” the initial stages of the permit application/license
application or applications that may be required for implementation of these
job-creation plans. Other states have already set up similar websites.

Gov. Rauner signed SB 659 into law on Friday, July 24, and the new
website should be online by July 2017.

Pensions – public employees

·Attorney General Lisa Madigan signals
that SB 1 decision may be appealed to federal Supreme Court. An Illinois Supreme Court decision
in early May struck down the 2013 “pension reform” bill, SB 1, and ordered
Illinois government officials and taxpayers to cover the entire unfunded costs
of pension benefits promised to many Illinois workers in the public sector. These
unfunded costs are estimated to exceed $100 billion, and the burden of meeting
these costs is one of the elements in the FY16 budget crisis.

The Illinois Supreme Court’s decision was an interpretation of
legal language within the Constitution of 1970 that granted explicit
contractual protection to pension benefits. While the constitutional
interpretation of each state’s constitution is traditionally a subject for the
sole jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of that state, some legal scholars
believe that the urgency of this issue could grant the Attorney General standing
to appeal the 2015 decision to the federal Supreme Court. The Attorney General
is in the process of filing a paper asking for additional time to study the
issue and possibly file this appeal.
Lisa Madigan’s action was described by “Crain’s Chicago Business” on Tuesday, July 28.

Infectious disease – mumps

·Mumps outbreak reported at the
University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The highly infectious viral disease
is controlled by childhood vaccinations, but many young people around the world
do not undertake a full schedule of inoculations and shots for various
diseases. Young children can be protected from mumps even before becoming
toddlers by administration (typically when they are 12 months to 15 months old)
of a multiprong vaccine that also protects them against measles, rubella, and
varicella. University campuses can, however, be vectors for infectious disease
because of their role as host locations for people from various U.S. states and
international cultures where vaccinations are less widely practiced.

The McKinley Health Center at UIUC and the Illinois Department
of Public Health
(DPH) have begun to fight the outbreak and collect numbers on those afflicted. According
to the “Chicago Tribune,” more than two-thirds of Illinois’ 73
known current cases of mumps have been diagnosed in Champaign County, home to
Illinois’ flagship State University. Persons displaying symptoms of mumps,
which include fever, headache, muscle aches and loss of appetite, should
contact a medical professional. Persons with mumps are typically isolated from
their peers to reduce the contagious spread of the virus.

Mitsubishi – major auto plant to close

·Bloomington-Normal officials offer help
to transfer plant property. In a
joint press release on Monday, July 27, Mitsubishi Motors and the United Auto
Workers said that they would look together for a buyer for the 1,200-employee
plant. Local officials have pledged to render every possible assistance to this
effort. The plant, which makes compact cars and sport-utility vehicles, is scheduled to close on or about November 30, 2015.

The Mitsubishi plant in Bloomington-Normal is Illinois’ only
foreign-owned motor vehicle assembly works. Other U.S. states, including
Midwestern states, have been relatively successful at winning status as host
locations for Asian and European carmakers. For example, Hondas are assembled
in Indiana and Ohio; Toyotas in Indiana, Kentucky, and Texas; Hyundais in Alabama;
and Nissans in Tennessee. In explaining Mitsubishi’s decision, auto industry
critics pointed to Illinois’ relatively poor business climate and to low and
falling demand for the vehicles designed and built by the Japanese-based motor
vehicle conglomerate. Bloomington-Normal auto production has fallen from more
than 200,000 vehicles in 2002 to 64,000 vehicles this year.

9-1-1 prank calls – John Anthony bill

·House Republican-sponsored measure
creates financial penalty for 9-1-1 prank callers. The bill applies to persons who, by
making a prank call to a 9-1-1 emergency-response number, commit the offense of
disorderly conduct. This offense is defined as the act of knowingly
transmitting a false alarm to an emergency-response 9-1-1 number. Persons who
unknowingly transmit a false report to 9-1-1 should not be charged with the
offense.

Under HB 3988, sponsored by State Rep. John
Anthony, if a knowingly false 9-1-1 prank call is made, the court shall order
the perpetrator to reimburse the emergency response pubic agency for the
reasonable costs of the emergency response, not to exceed $10,000. As a retired
sheriff’s deputy, Rep. Anthony is well aware of the cost to public safety
rapid-response teams and their personal of prank calls like these. Gov. Bruce
Rauner signed HB 3988 into law on Tuesday, July 28. The House had previously agreed to the final
language of the bill by a unanimous vote of 111-0-0.

“Scott’s Law” – Brian Stewart bill

·Brian Stewart asks Illinoisans to
remember public safety workers every December 23. HB 246 designates each December 23 as
“Scott’s Law Day.” The day remembers Lt. Scott Gillen, a firefighter killed in
a traffic accident on December 23, 2000. Investigators agreed that Scott’s tragic
death should have and could have been prevented if drivers would slow down when
seeing a stationary emergency-response vehicle with its lights flashing.
“Scott’s Law,” enacted earlier by the General Assembly, requires drivers to
slow down and, when possible, to safely change lanes.

The designation of a “Scott’s Law Day” is meant to create a
platform for public-service announcements to improve compliance with the existing
law. Gov. Rauner signed the bill to create “Scott’s Law Day” on Tuesday, July
28.

Severe weather – Farmers seek flood
relief

·Substantial Illinois crop losses inevitable
from heavy rains in spring and early summer. June 2015 was the second-wettest month on record in Illinois,
with an average rain gauge measuring 9.37 inches of rain in 30 days –
equivalent to three or four months’ precipitation in a normal year. Many sections of Illinois were hit even
harder by rain and storms. Signs of crop damage are visible throughout Illinois
as bald patches appear in farmers’ fields. Seed corn and beans have been unable
to sprout or develop in “wet spots” or entire inundated fields.

Gov. Bruce Rauner and members of the Illinois congressional
delegation have asked Washington to approve a federal
disaster declaration and disaster relief in response to the weather
picture. Missouri has filed a similar application. The disaster
declaration, if it is made, will apply to specific flood-hit counties within
Illinois and will qualify specified groups of people for enumerated types of
emergency aid. In a typical summer-flooding disaster declaration, farmers in
hard-hit counties are made eligible for low-interest emergency loans. These and
other forms of assistance are meant to enable them to maintain operations and
replant their fields in spring 2016.

Veterans’ preferences – Robert
Pritchard

·New Veterans Preference in Private
Employment Act signed into law. HB 3122, which originated with Representative
Bob Pritchard of DeKalb County, seeks to strongly encourage (but not require) a
veterans’ preference path to employment in private-sector workplaces that opt
into the program. The Act encourages all such programs to be set forth in
writing and posted at the place of employment or employment website. The Act
contains provisions intended to ensure that the policy, if in place, shall be
applied with uniformity and continue to be in place should the employer be
required to carry out a reduction in force.

Governor Bruce Rauner signed HB 3122 into law on Tuesday, July
28. The House had earlier approved the
bill in a unanimous vote.

DuPage County – Local government
consolidation

·Peter Breen bill abolishes obsolete
unit of local government. HB 3747 winds up the affairs of the DuPage
County Fair and Exposition Authority. Once-rural DuPage County strongly
supports its county fair and, in past years, created an independent authority
to operate it. The county’s long-term planning included the farsighted
acquisition of a large parcel of property, the County Farm and fairgrounds,
much of which was adaptively reused in the late 1980s for the county’s
governmental complex and Courthouse Square west of Wheaton.

The DuPage County Fair celebrated its 61st
gathering in July 2015. The fairgrounds also serve as a host for other celebration
marketplaces and special events throughout the year. As the fairground’s
activities diversify, DuPage County fair management has joined other county
fairs throughout Illinois in moving towards a joint public-private-sector
identity. The DuPage County Fair Association is completing the task of taking
over the responsibilities of the Authority, leading to the consolidation of one
unit of Illinois local government. With 6,963 units in March of this year,
Illinois had more units of local government than any other state in the
U.S.

HB 3747 (Breen/Connelly) was signed into law on Wednesday, July 29
by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

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